


Reach Out In The Darkness

by red_starshine



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Western, Demonic Possession, Historical Fantasy, M/M, Vampire Bites, Weird West
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21578959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_starshine/pseuds/red_starshine
Summary: Unable to make a living from his illusion magic, Elliott Witt worked as a bartender in the Paradise Saloon in the small town of Kings Canyon. It wasn't the fame and fortune he'd hoped for, but he still enjoyed it.Then a strange rider came to town one night, dressed in red and black.After that, everything went straight to hell.To survive the night and save Kings Canyon from the Revenant, Elliott must put his trust in a vampire, Crypto, who is more than he appears.(A Weird West AU loosely inspired by the Shadowfall event, with Vampire Crypto and Magician Mirage.)
Relationships: Crypto | Park Tae Joon/Mirage | Elliott Witt
Comments: 12
Kudos: 120





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Eff it, everyone's got to take a shot at Vampire Crypto, right?
> 
> It does amuse me that of the Crypto/Mirage fics I've seen that use Crypto's vampire skin as a springboard, nobody's made Mirage a cowboy. (And this fic is no exception!)
> 
> The title is from the song 'Reach Out Of The Darkness' by Friend & Lover.
> 
> (It should be noted that this was written and finished before Revenant's inclusion as a playable character in the game.)

Traditionally, it was the women of Elliott Witt's family who learned magic. When his mother gave birth to four sons, the youngest being born six months after her husband’s death, she'd realized that tradition was going to have to be tweaked a little in order to pass down her family's talent for crafting illusions.

Honestly, Elliott's mother had never been one for traditions.

Only one of her sons, the youngest, had the right aptitude for magic. Elliott learned magic sitting beside his mother while his older brothers were outside, playing with the farm's old sheepdog. His brothers teased him about learning witchcraft, and Elliott put up a fight, protesting that he was only learning illusions from their mother. She could make images appears out of thin air, but they didn't really exist. They couldn't be touched. It wasn't true sorcery.

But illusion magic was still magic.

At first, Elliott's illusions were only small, flickering wisps. An apple that looked like it was blown from red glass. A copy of the golden wedding band his mother still wore that barely held its shape. The first time he'd attempted to create a duplicate of himself, the result was human- _like_ but so subtly wrong he'd had nightmares about it for a week.

It took years of practice for his illusions to gain the appearance of depth and weight, to seem convincingly real. After he could successfully duplicate himself, it took longer to learn how to make the other Elliott move without it looking stiff and artificial. By the time he was fifteen, he could create a trio of Elliotts at once, and it would be nearly impossible to distinguish the real Elliott from the three illusions.

One of the last tricks Elliott learned from his mother was how to bend the light around himself to become invisible for short periods of time. After he'd mastered becoming invisible, he'd used it to play tricks on his brothers during their morning chores, tearing a hole in the bottom of the bag used to feed the chickens, or gently prodding the Guernsey cow when his oldest brother was trying to milk her.

Then the Wars started and suddenly Elliott's brothers were gone, all of them drafted and killed in battle over the span of six months. The Wars didn't last long enough for Elliott to be drafted, ending shortly before his twenty-first birthday.

Elliott tried not to think about how, if he'd fought in the Wars alongside his brothers, the illusion magic they had teased him about for years might've been able to save their lives.

About two years after the end of the Wars, it was starting to look like the family farm would have to be sold – they'd tried their best but it was too large for the two of them to run by themselves and there wasn't enough money coming in to justify hiring farmhands. His mother hadn't wanted to lose the farm. It had too many memories wrapped up in it for her to willingly sell it.

Elliott had hopped on a train bound for Solace City with stars in his eyes, determined to make a name for himself with his mastery of illusions.

Seven years later and he'd ended up tending bar at the Paradise Saloon in Kings Canyon, a small town well outside of Solace City. It paid well enough that he'd been able to send some of his money to his mother before she'd passed, but it wasn't the stardom he'd dreamed of when he'd left the farm. His illusions were impressive, but not impressive enough when compared to what he'd been told was “real” magic – transformation, teleportation, conjuring, spellcraft, fortunetelling, speaking to the dead – for him to be able to make a living with his tricks in Solace City. He sometimes showed off his illusions to patrons while he was tending bar, but that was it.

Nobody in Kings Canyon seemed to have set out to live there - it was a haven for misfits, outcasts, grifters and drifters who didn't have anywhere else to go.

Elliott had a handful of regulars at the Paradise Saloon he'd gotten to know pretty well – there was Anita Williams, a bounty hunter, as well as Doctor Ajay Che, who had a small office a few doors down from his saloon. Professor Nox sometimes drifted through, but he didn't talk much, and Elliott honestly found him deeply unsettling when he did. Natalie didn't drink but she came to the Paradise every now and then to show Elliott what electrical marvel she was currently working on in her lab. Sheriff Gibraltar sometimes had to intervene when things got a little rowdy and someone started swinging fists around, but for the most part they were on friendly terms since Makoa was an cheerful man in general.

Most of all, Elliott tried to make the patrons of the Paradise Saloon happy. When he was behind the bar, he was charming, quick-witted, friendly, always willing to have a good time or to put on a show with his illusions. Nobody left the Paradise unhappy if he could help it. He’d never told anyone in Kings Canyon about what had happened to his brothers or why he had left the family farm for Solace City. People came to his saloon to forget their own troubles, not to listen to him cry over his own hardships.

Tending bar at the Paradise Saloon wasn't the fame and fortune Elliott had hoped for, but he still enjoyed it.

Then the rider came to Kings Canyon one night, dressed in red and black. After that, everything went straight to hell.

* * *

_The rider called himself the Revenant. He arrived at Kings Canyon at midnight in the middle of harvest season, when the air had begun to turn bitingly cold. A cart followed his horse, pulled by two horses with no driver. Inside the cart was a wooden coffin._

_No one saw him come into Kings Canyon. They only heard him approach the town, his horses’ hooves pounding at the ground like a drum._

* * *

It was a slow night inside Elliott's saloon. Natalie, Anita and Ajay were seated at the bar, with Professor Nox silently drinking at a table by himself near the saloon’s entrance.

Anita had a stack of wanted posters in front of her, telling Ajay, Natalie and Elliott stories she'd heard from other bounty hunters about the criminals.

"This one's a mystery. Lots of hunters looking for him, since the bounty's so high," said Anita, pulling out a poster to show Ajay and Natalie. "He kills his sister one night - completely out of the blue - and then disappeared. Nobody's seen hi--"

The rider entered the Paradise after hitching his horses to the post outside, the hood of his red cloak pulled up over his head. Anita paused, looking over her shoulder at the saloon's doors.

“Hey there. You new in town?” said Elliott with a friendly smile as he finished drying one of the glasses. “Don’t think I’ve seen you here before.”

The rider said nothing.

Elliott's grin began to falter as the newcomer remained silent. Something began to twinge inside his head, a quiet warning that something wasn't quite right. “What, are you gonna stand there all night?”

The rider seemed to grow taller, grabbing Professor Nox by the throat and pulling him up out of his chair. Nox wasn’t a small man, but his feet dangled above the floorboards of the saloon. He struggled against the man's grip, legs flailing, but the rider only tightened his hold.

“Hey! What the fuck are you doing?! Let him go,” shouted Elliott.

Anita stood up from her stool, a frown appearing on her face.

“What is he doing to the Professor?” Natalie breathed to Elliott, frozen in shock.

Something strange was happening to Nox. A darkness, like oily smoke, was quickly spreading from the rider’s skeletal hand, covering Nox’s entire body until it looked like the rider had somehow caught Nox’s shadow. Nox stopped moving.

Elliott’s jaw dropped. This was dark magic. He’d never seen it firsthand before, but it was unmistakable.

“I am the Revenant,” the rider announced as he released Nox. “And this town is now mine.”

The shadow Nox twitched, opening eyes that burned like the heart of a blacksmith’s forge.

Elliott grabbed the loaded shotgun from underneath the bar and passed it to Anita. He’d been a decent shot out on the farm, but no one in Kings Canyon was as handy with a gun as Anita Williams.

Anita’s eyes lit up as she took the shotgun from Elliott. Turning around, she fired off one shot directly into the Revenant’s chest, right where his heart would’ve been. It seemed to pass through him, splintering the wooden doorframe behind him.

Anita stared at the Revenant in shock before she raised the shotgun again. Nox’s shadow rushed at her, knocking her down to the floor. The shotgun clattered to the ground. In only a few heartbeats, the shadows spread from Nox to Anita, engulfing her as well. 

“Anita!” Ajay called out.

Natalie backed away from Anita, but not quick enough to avoid Anita’s hand grabbing onto her ankle. Natalie let out a loud scream just before the shadows swallowed her.

The Revenant laughed. "The shadows are your home now."

Scrambling, Elliott yanked Ajay over the bar, momentarily out of reach from the three shadows. Crouching down behind the bar with Ajay, he pointed at the door behind the bar, leading to the storeroom and the saloon’s back exit. “Go find Makoa. I’ll distract them.”

Ajay stared at him a moment, her eyes widening. “I’m not leaving you alone against those things!”

Elliot drew upon his magic to create a duplicate of Ajay. His illusion winked at the real Ajay. “Don’t worry, you aren't,” Elliott said with a lopsided grin. “Go, Ajay.”

Ajay sighed. She placed a hand on Elliott’s shoulder and squeezed. “Give ‘em hell, Elliott,” she said, and then disappeared into the back room.

“Are you hiding from me?” The Revenant called. His heavy footsteps drew closer to the bar that Elliott and the illusion he’d created of Ajay were crouching behind. “How disappointing.”

Elliott took in a deep breath and drew upon his magic.

Five Elliotts sprang up over the bar to run around the saloon. Each of them was loudly taunting the Revenant and his shadows, dodging around them. “Which one’s the real one?” the Elliotts called.

The actual Elliott, invisible and peering from behind the bar, felt like his head was going to explode. Maintaining five projections of himself, one of Ajay and cloaking himself was at the upper limit of what he could do at once. He wouldn’t be able to hold it for very long. He prayed it gave him enough time to make it out of the saloon.

Holding his breath, he ducked and wove around the chaos his illusions were creating. He tried to use his projections to clear a path toward the saloon’s entrance.

Anita’s shadow grabbed the arm of one of his decoys and with a final smirk it vanished in a burst of bright light. The three shadows and the Revenant all recoiled from the light.

Elliott bolted underneath the saloon's swinging doors, nearly collapsing onto the street. There were two more flares of light from inside the saloon. He had three illusions left before they’d realize what he’d done.

His head swimming, Elliott leaned against the Revenant’s cart to catch his breath, not noticing the coffin until he heard two soft thumps come from inside it.

Elliott turned around and recoiled from the coffin, taking a stumbling step back. The coffin was made of dark wood. A ring of powerful magical sigils had been carved into the center of the lid, meant to keep whatever was inside contained. It could be easily opened from the outside, but it was impossible to push the lid open from within.

And whoever was in the coffin was asking to be let out.

Panting from exhaustion, Elliott considered just staggering away from the cart until he found someplace safe to drop his cloak and recover. What was inside the coffin wasn't any of his business.

Whatever was trapped inside the coffin knocked twice against the wooden lid again, almost politely.

Elliott froze. Fuck it. What was inside the coffin couldn’t possibly be worse than the monster in the Paradise. Elliott pushed the thin lid off the coffin with trembling arms as another burst of light illuminated the saloon’s windows.

A Korean man was lying inside the wooden coffin, dressed in a black frock coat with a dramatically oversized collar that was lined with bright red satin. His neck and jaw were plated with gold, and a large ruby pendant hung below the hollow of his throat. His eyes - pale blue and glowing - opened, focusing on Elliott’s. He sat up in the coffin and Elliott saw the too-pale skin and glint of sharpened teeth.

Why was the Revenant lugging around a vampire inside a sealed coffin?

Elliott’s vision began to dim. It’d been decades since he’d overexerted himself using magic to make him pass out. Now his lack of stamina was going to get him eaten by a vampire or turned into a shadow.

“Not fair,” Elliott groaned. He felt the tenuous grip he held over his remaining illusions snap. With a grunt he flickered back to full visibility, collapsing face-down in front of the vampire.

“Idiot,” Elliott heard the vampire mutter quietly right before he lost consciousness.

* * *

Elliott woke up someplace dark. The same pale eyes he'd seen right before he'd passed out were hovering in front of him, glowing.

He opened his mouth to scream, but a cold hand clamped down on top of his lips before he could make a sound.

"Be quiet," whispered the vampire, his glowing eyes suddenly filling up Elliott's vision.

Elliott froze, staring up at the vampire, not even daring to breathe. After a few heartbeats, the vampire slowly took his hand away from Elliott's mouth.

Elliott slid away from the vampire as soon as he let go. He'd been placed on top of a comfortable bed, the mattress creaking underneath him. He sat up to stare at the vampire sitting at the foot of the bed. With shaking fingers, Elliott prodded at the skin around his neck but didn't feel anything that could've been a bite wound. "Gods. I thought you were going to kill me," he said incredulously.

The vampire glowered at him, his eyes narrowing slightly.

' _Don't make the vampire mad_ ', the more rational side of Elliott’s mind screamed at him.

"W-who are you?" said Elliott, his voice cracking.

"Crypto," said the vampire. Crypto's eyes slitted and looked at him askance. "Who are you?"

"Ell-elliott Witt. I’m a bartender at the Paradise Saloon." His eyes had started to adjust to the darkness, and the light of the full moon coming through the room's window allowed him to see more of Crypto's face than just his shining eyes.

Even with the fangs, it was an undeniably attractive face. A grey forelock of hair hung in front of his face, the rest of his hair dark and slicked back.

"You can turn yourself invisible, Witt?" said Crypto.

"Yeah," said Elliott. "Among other things." His eyes settled on the vampire's ruby pendant. Deciding he'd recovered enough to create an illusion without passing out again, Elliott held out his hand as an exact duplicate of the pendant appeared in his palm.

Crypto's eyebrows rose. He poked at the illusion and it popped like a soap bubble.

"Interesting," said Crypto stiffly.

"How did you know where I was when I was invisible?" asked Elliott. "You looked right at me. No one's been able to do that." Even the Revenant and his shadows hadn't been able to detect him when he'd been sneaking out of the saloon.

"Your invisibility only hides you from sight, Witt." The vampire tapped Elliott's chest with a finger. "I could hear your heart beating."

Elliott glanced around the room, trying to figure out where the vampire had taken him. There was a mirror and washstand in the corner, and a small unlit oil lamp on top of a wooden bureau. Unsurprisingly, the vampire didn't cast a reflection in the mirror. Other than than that, the room was empty. One of the windows was still partially open, a cold breeze blowing into the room. Crypto had broken into one of the many empty rooms of the Kings Canyon Hotel across the street from the Paradise Saloon. Kings Canyon usually didn't get many visitors.

 _Usually_.

"What were you doing in that coffin anyway?" said Elliott.

Crypto scowled. "The Revenant wanted my help. I told him no. He can't turn me into one of his shadows - I'm already dead. He was going to seal me inside the coffin and starve me until I agreed. A promise made to the Revenant is unbreakable, even if it’s made under duress."

"What the Revenant did to my friends, turning them into monsters," said Elliott. "I-I've never seen anything like it. What _is_ he?"

"No one know where the Revenant came from," said Crypto. "But by night, he spreads his shadows to every place he passes through until that town is overrun by them. The shadows all vanish at sunrise and he moves on, leaving a deserted town behind him."

A chill ran through Elliott at the thought of the shadows spreading to the other people in Kings Canyon. Anita's courage, Natalie's ingenuity and even Nox's cold intelligence, all disappearing as soon as the sun rose. It was unbelievable. “No. There's got to be a way to turn them back.”

“There is," said Crypto. "Kill the Revenant before the sun rises and his shadows will return to how they were before.”

Elliott swallowed. "Hold on, did you say kill the Revenant?"

"I did."

"That's, uh, that's..." Elliott Witt was just a bartender, not a solider or a sheriff. He was a deft hand at illusion magic but that was really all he could do. He couldn't kill the Revenant with illusions, could he? "I'm not sure I'd be able to do that," he said quietly. "Not by myself."

The vampire's glowing eyes lingered on him. "Then I have a proposal for you,” said Crypto, breaking the silence. “I'll help in killing the Revenant. In return, once he is dead, you’ll let me drink from you."

Elliott stared at Crypto. “Ah-a-and you wouldn’t take too much blood or turn me into a vampire too?” His nerves made his stutter more pronounced.

Crypto gave him something that was almost a smile. Elliott didn't find it very comforting. “I have no intention of killing you, Witt. And a bite isn’t enough to turn someone into a vampire. But..."

"But?" prodded Elliott.

The vampire's eyes lingered on Elliott's throat before he tore his gaze away from it. "It’s been longer than I’d like since the last time I fed. I’ll need to drink soon.”

"What if I say yes and we don't end up killing the Revenant? Would I still have to let you drink my blood?"

Crypto smirked slightly. "No. We’d both be dead.”

Elliott winced at Crypto’s bluntness. “I see.”

If the vampire was willing to help save his friends and his town from the Revenant, a little of his blood seemed like a small price to pay.

“All right, you've got a deal,” said Elliott, holding out his hand to Crypto. “Shake on it?”

Crypto glanced at Elliott’s hand and grabbed it. His fingers were like ice against Elliott’s warm skin. Elliott shook the vampire's hand with two quick pumps and then let go.

“Can I ask you something?” said Elliott.

“Yes.” Crypto still seemed to be very focused on Elliott's neck, as if he was already imagining what it would feel like to sink his fangs into it.

Elliott swallowed thickly and pulled up on the checkered scarf around his neck. "If you're hungry, why didn't you just bite me after I passed out? I was pretty much a giant porkchop dropped right in front of you.”

Crypto glanced away from him, and it occurred to Elliott that the vampire was embarrassed. "When I first becamea vampire, I swore I would only take human blood if it was willingly offered. I don’t usually feed from people,” admitted Crypto. “But these aren’t normal circumstances.”

Elliott looked closely at the vampire. He’d been half-starved inside the coffin, and watching him it was obvious he was hungrier than he was willing to admit out loud. Going into a fight with a half-starved vampire didn’t seem like a very good idea to Elliott.

' _Gods, I am a moron_ ,' Elliott thought, and then said out loud, “Do you want some of my blood now?”

Crypto’s head snapped back towards him, his eyebrows lifting up. “What?”

Elliott began to roll up one sleeve of his shirt, exposing the crook of his elbow. “Just a little bit. Enough to take the edge off. Like an appetizer before the main course.”

Crypto stared at Elliot as if he wanted to turn down Elliott’s offer but couldn’t bring himself to actually refuse. “The neck is traditional,” he said flatly after a long pause.

“Buy me a drink and then we’ll talk about the neck,” said Elliot with a brilliant grin and a wink.

It was hard to be sure in the darkened room, but Elliot noticed what appeared to be a faint flush appear on Crypto’s cheeks.

With a sly smile, Elliott offered his bare arm to Crypto. “How about we start with this for now?”

Crypto sighed, giving in. “All right.” He kneeled between Elliott's spread legs. Elliott tried not to squirm as Crypto wrapped one hand around his wrist and the other around his upper arm, studying the lines of his veins running underneath his skin. Despite his earlier bravado, Elliott’s heart stammered inside his chest.

With practiced ease, Crypto lowered his mouth to the crook of Elliott’s elbow. Elliott flinched, fighting the urge to look away, but he forced himself to watch out of both caution and curiosity.

Elliott barely felt a twinge of pain as the vampire’s fangs sank into his skin.

That wasn’t so bad. He’d gotten scratches from the chickens on the farm that’d hurt more. Elliott’s racing heart began to slow.

Crypto paused, his glowing eyes flitting up to meet Elliott’s, and then he began to drink from his arm, taking deliberate, measured swallows.

Elliott’s head started to swim as the vampire drank his blood. To his surprise, it was not an unpleasant sensation. It was a little like being enjoyably tipsy - warm and relaxing, lightheaded. Giddy.

Elliott idly noticed that the grey streak of hair in front of Crypto's face seemed to be getting in the vampire's eyes. With his free hand, Elliott brushed Crypto’s forelock out of his eyes and behind his ear before carding his fingers through the vampire’s dark hair. Elliott felt Crypto start slightly under his touch, the vampire inhaling through his nose in surprise before continuing to drink from Elliott’s arm.

It was hard for Elliott to judge exactly how much blood Crypto had taken before the vampire made a quiet noise in the back of his throat and carefully removed his mouth from Elliott’s arm. The sensation of Crypto's fangs withdrawing from his skin was strange, but not exactly painful. Full, and then oddly hollow. Crypto licked across the marks he’d made on Elliott’s arm, wiping away the blood starting to well from the two puncture wounds.

Elliott, realizing his hand was still buried in Crypto's hair, let go. The vampire slowly drew away from Elliott, releasing his hold on Elliott’s arm.

Elliott could still feel the vampire's cold fingers burning against his skin as he rolled the sleeve back down, covering the bite wounds. 

"Is that enough?" said Elliott, his voice oddly thick.

Crypto nodded slowly, his pale eyes glassy. His lips were stained dark red. It wasn't fair that Crypto somehow still looked handsome even with Elliott's own blood dripping from his mouth.

Elliott couldn’t help himself. He gave the vampire a wide smile. “Was it good for you too?”

That seemed to break whatever post-feeding afterglow the vampire had slipped into. Crypto scoffed lightly and stood up from the bed. "We should see what the Revenant's doing," he said, walking towards the open window. Crouching down on the floor underneath the window, he reached over his shoulder, something black and winged appearing in his hand when he pulled it back where there hadn't been anything a moment ago.

Elliott squinted at it. A bat? It didn't seem the right shape to be a bird.

Crypto released the bat from his hand. It flew around the room, momentarily pausing to hover in front of Elliott, before zipping out the window.

The vampire's eyes became vacant as soon as the bat had left the room, his face going slack. His head slumped down a moment later, his gold-plated chin resting against his chest.

"Crypto? Hey, you all right?" Elliott moved to the vampire, resting a hand on Crypto's arm. When Crypto didn’t respond, he gently lifted the vampire’s head up with his hand. “Crypto?”

Crypto's pale blue eyes were still open, staring into the distance, but the eerie light in them was gone.

Of course Elliott knew that the vampire wasn't technically alive to begin with, but now Crypto looked disturbingly corpse-like. Whatever had animated his body was gone.

' _Almost like it'd flown out of the window..._ '

Elliott had heard about magicians who could separate their mind from their body, sending their consciousness out to roam the world like a spirit while their living body stayed in one place. He wasn't aware that vampires could pull off that particular trick as well, but most of what was known about vampires amounted to rumors and hearsay. _'Just pray you never run into one._ '

"A little late for that," Elliott muttered. Sighing, he sat down next to Crypto's body and waited for the bat to come back.

It felt like ages before the little bat returned to the room. Crypto stirred slightly as it quietly glided through the window, moving for the first time since it'd left. The bat seemed to not quite land where it was supposed to, attaching itself to the large collar of Crypto’s coat.

Crypto made a frustrated noise, trying to remove the trembling bat with fingers that seemed oddly slow and clumsy.

“I can do it,” Elliott offered. Crypto froze, as if he hadn’t registered that Elliott was next to him, and then let his hand fall back to his side. Elliott assumed that was as close to giving him permission as Crypto could do.

Elliott gently unhooked the bat’s claws from the red satin lining Crypto’s collar without tearing the fabric. The bat went still when Elliott touched it, allowing him to cup it in his hands.

The bat was surprisingly warm and covered in soft fur, staring up at him with beady eyes that seemed to glow. As he looked at it, the bat began to dissolve into wisps of smoke that curled back towards Crypto’s face.

“Oh. Uh.” Elliott held the smoking bat above the back of Crypto’s neck, where he’d first seen it appear. The bat fully disintegrated, collapsing into smoke that fell between Elliott's fingers. Crypto's body seemed to somehow absorb the smoke. He slowly raised his head to meet Elliott’s gaze, his eyes restored to their normal brightness.

“Welcome back,” said Elliott with a relieved smile. “What did you see?”

“The Revenant and his shadows are swarming a building. The sheriff's office? There are several people inside preventing the shadows from entering."

Elliott blinked. "How? Anita tried shooting at the Revenant and it didn't do anything."

"Guns are useless against the Revenant. Think, Witt. What would a shadow fear the most?"

Back in the saloon, the shadows had recoiled when one of Elliott's illusions had disappeared in a flash of light. From what Crypto had told him earlier, exposure to the sun would make them disappear altogether. "Uh, light?"

Crypto nodded. "There are a ring of extremely bright electric lights placed around the sheriff's building. It creates a barrier the shadows can't cross."

"Those are Natalie's," said Elliott. She had made Makoa eight electric lamps for his office in the town jail, since he was often there late at night and often complained about burning through oil fast. She'd shown one of her lamps to Elliott before she'd given them to Makoa, demonstrating how they had adjustable levels of brightness - but the brighter they burned, the quicker the battery powering the lantern ran down. At their highest setting, the battery would only last an hour and a half at most.Something ice-cold gripped his chest. "Crypto, those lights aren't going to last the whole night."

Crypto nodded, nonplussed. "I assumed as much."

Elliott grabbed onto Crypto's arm. "We have to save them."

The vampire gave him a sideways look. "What exactly can you do, Witt? Make yourself invisible and create small illusions?"

Elliott raised an eyebrow. "' _Small_ '?" he repeated in mock-offense. With a flick of his hand, he created a perfect replica of himself on Crypto's other side. "Let's get one thing straight - nothing about me's small, kid." His illusion winked at the vampire.

Another Elliott appeared in front of Crypto, lying on his side and resting his chin in his palm. "Definitely not my illusions," the double said.

The look of surprise on Crypto's face - his glowing eyes wide and his lips slightly parted - was something Elliott knew he would treasure.

The cunning smirk that quickly replaced it was even better, Elliott decided.


	2. Chapter 2

The Kings Canyon jail was easy to spot with the ring of Natalie's electric lamps posted outside the windows and doors. The shadows - there were about fifteen of them now, including Natalie herself - were prowling around the jail, looking for a way inside, but the lamps positioned around the building formed a bright barricade against the shadows. The electric lamps were still lit, but they'd started to dim and flicker. They clearly wouldn't last for much longer. Once one of the lamps died, the shadows would be able to get inside.

Crypto had seen Ajay, along with Makoa and several other townspeople, through the windows of the jail when he had spied on the area. Ajay's twin buns of red-dyed hair were distinctive, as was the scarf she wore around her forehead. At least she hadn't been caught by the Revenant and his shadows, unlike the rest of the people in the saloon.

The Revenant stood apart from the shadows he commanded, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he watching them circle the jail, waiting for the lamps to die.

Elliott was slung over Crypto's shoulder as if he were a sack of potatoes, playing dead as Crypto approached the Revenant and his shadows.

The Revenant turned around as he heard Crypto's footsteps. "Ah, there you are. I see you found the bartender."

Crypto nodded shortly. Pressing his fingers into Elliott's side, he began to slide Elliott off his shoulder.

Their rapidly-cobbled-together plan hinged on Elliott pulling the next part off perfectly. After overusing his illusion magic earlier, he hoped he would be able to pull off the split-second timing this stunt would require.

Elliott simultaneously cloaked and dropped a double of himself, the illusion 'hitting' the ground in front of Crypto's feet disguising the sound of his own clumsy landing behind Crypto. Elliott held his breath, waiting for a reaction from the Revenant, to see if he’d noticed the swap.

The illusion's neck was smeared with blood, two large wounds ripping apart the skin.

"I was hungry," said Crypto flatly, glaring daggers at the Revenant.

"Yes, I can see that," said the Revenant with mild distaste, like Crypto was a pet cat presenting him with a dead mouse. "But no matter. I take it you've had some time to think over my proposal?"

The Revenant hadn't seen the switch between Elliott and his decoy.

Standing up slowly and with great care, Elliott quietly moved behind Crypto. He looked over the other man's shoulder, keeping his eyes on the Revenant.

Crypto glowered at the Revenant, his mouth hard. “If I refuse, would you try to lock me inside that coffin again, until I withered away?”

The Revenant appeared indifferent to Crypto's bitterness, only giving a shrug. “I was only going to wait until you would see reason. Letting you turn to dust wouldn’t be what either of us wanted.”

"I'm glad we agree on that," said Crypto cooly.

"You carry such hatred in your heart, a thirst for revenge as strong as your thirst for blood. It’s truly breathtaking. I wanted you because of your potential. But it would not have to be a one-sided partnership," said the Revenant softly. "Together, we can hunt down the vampires responsible for your sister's death."

Crypto stiffened next to him. "What did you say?" he said in a hushed voice.

' _Oh shit.'_ Elliott winced. That was definitely not part of the plan.

The Revenant tilted his head, still staring at Crypto. "I know all about you. To hunt down the monsters that killed your beloved sister and framed you for her murder, you became a monster yourself. You burned away your humanity solely for vengeance. Why do you think I sought you out?”

Crypto seemed taken aback, thrown entirely off balance by the Revenant's speech. "I--"

If it wouldn't have immediately blown his cover, Elliott would've grabbed Crypto by the ridiculous lapels of his coat and shook him until he pulled himself together.

Elliott had, perhaps foolishly, assumed that if this half-assed plan of theirs went awry, it’d be because of him. Maybe he would still be too drained to pull off any elaborate illusions or he'd fumbled on the timing with the switch between himself and his decoy. 

He’d never considered that it might be Crypto. 

The mask covering the Revenant’s face seemed to leer at Crypto. "Think of it. Against both of us, the vampires of the Council of Night would be brought to their knees. Your sister’s soul could finally find peace. Isn't that what you want for your dear, sweet Mila?”

When Crypto didn't reply, deeply lost in his own thoughts, the Revenant stepped closer to him, extending a hand out towards him. "Will you join me, Taejoon?"

Elliott stared at Crypto. The vampire's earlier words swirled around in his head: ' _A promise made to the Revenant is unbreakable, even if it’s made under duress.'_

If Crypto agreed, he would be bound to the Revenant forever.

Worse, Elliott could _see_ Crypto considering the Revenant’s proposal, weighing revenge against his sister's murderers against his own freedom and the lives of everyone else in Kings Canyon.

But Elliott didn't have it in him to stay angry at Crypto for not immediately saying no. The Revenant had powerful dark magic at his disposal, and his offer to help hunt down and kill the vampires who'd murdered Crypto's sister was clearly appealing to the vampire's hunger for revenge.

At the same time, Elliott couldn't imagine Crypto, curt as he could be, standing by while the Revenant let his shadows loose to wipe out whole towns overnight. Elliott liked to think he'd become a pretty good judge of character since he'd left the family farm - useful when you ran a saloon in a place like Kings Canyon - and Crypto didn't strike him as someone who'd agree to something so loathsome, no matter what was offered to him in return.

Elliott placed a hand on the vampire’s shoulder and squeezed lightly, a reminder of his presence.

_'I'm here. You're not alone. Don't do this.'_

With a startled breath, Crypto's eyes flicked back towards Elliott, still wide with shock, before landing back on the Revenant. Crypto's expression smoothed back into a cold glare. He took a deep breath, seething with barely-concealed disdain, and shook his head. "No."

The Revenant dropped his hand. "You would refuse me, even after what happened the first time?"

"My sister would never want me to help kill innocents. Perhaps you don't know me as well as you think you do," Crypto sneered. The vampire made a fist with his right hand, tapping it lightly against his leg. 

It took Elliott a moment to remember that was the signal they'd decided on. _'Oh, right!'_ He raised his hands, pulling upon his magic. A wide grin appeared on his face.

Even if he'd wound up running a saloon in the middle of nowhere instead of on stage in Solace City, he was always willing to put on a show.

A flurry of large black bats emerged from behind Crypto, rising over his head to fly shrieking towards the Revenant in a barrage of fur and wings.

Elliott reached out for Crypto, wrapping his arms around the vampire in a tight embrace, pressing his body close. Turning Crypto away from the Revenant, Elliott concentrated.

Elliott's invisibility could hide things that weren't just his body - his clothes and whatever he was carrying always turned invisible with him - but he'd never attempted extending his invisibility to something as large as another person before. If he didn't make Crypto invisible too, bend the light around both of them, the vampire could be hurt by what happened next. He was relieved when Crypto abruptly disappeared from sight right before the first of Elliott's bat illusions reached the Revenant.

Each bat that collided with the Revenant's body exploded in a burst of blazing light, brighter than the sun. With an inhuman screech of pain, the Revenant covered his eyes and attempted to stumble away. His own eyes watering from the light, Elliott guided the bats to follow him, all of them erupting into light as they hurled themselves against his cloak and hood. Several of the Revenant's shadows let out screams of pain at the flurry of glaring light surrounding their master, slithering back towards the safety of the darkness.

The first of the electric lamps surrounding the jail buzzed and went out, but none of the shadows moved towards the hole in the building's defenses.

Elliott let out a triumphant laugh as his bats forced the Revenant and his shadows further away from the town jail. Even though he couldn't see Crypto, he could feel the vampire, cold and motionless, still pressed against him. "Are you ready?" said Elliott as he turned Crypto towards the Revenant.

"Yes," came the response as the light from the last of Elliott's illusions faded.

"Good luck, kid." With that, Elliott let go of Crypto.

Vampires ran fast. Crypto blinked into visibility right before he pounced on the Revenant, knocking him to the ground. Crypto yanked down the Revenant's hood. Roughly wrenching the Revenant's masked head to the side, the vampire hissed and plunged his fangs deeply into the exposed greyish skin of the Revenant's neck.

The Revenant let out a long, wailing screech, claws scrabbling uselessly against the vampire's frock coat. Ignoring him, Crypto greedily feasted on the Revenant, sucking down his essence.

The Revenant went limp underneath Crypto, the fight draining out of him. Two long lines of black blood oozed down the Revenant's neck.

Grinning, Elliott became visible again, careful to stay out of the Revenant's reach. He let his decoy still lying on the ground fade away. "I've got to admit, we may've tricked you," he said to the Revenant.

The eyes beneath the Revenant's mask stared at Elliott, bulging out in anger.

Natalie's shadow hissed at Elliott, splitting off from the other shadows to stalk closer to him.

"Uh." Before Elliott could cloak himself again, Natalie's shadow abruptly stopped mid-step with a quizzical look on her face. The dark shadows flickered over her, briefly revealing the human Natalie, before they returned.

Elliott blinked, watching her warily, but she didn't lurch towards him, staying frozen in place. He quickly looked around at the other shadows.

All of the Revenant's shadows were shuddering, as whatever control he had over them began to waver.

With a final, rasping cry, the Revenant collapsed into dust, his red cloak fluttering to the dirt. Crypto lurched forward as the Revenant's body disintegrated underneath him, black ichor dripping from his mouth.

The shadows blew away from Natalie in a cloud of smoke, and she fell to her knees with a groan, no longer under the Revanant's power.

"Natalie!" he called, grabbing her arm before she could collapse completely. "Natalie, you all right?"

Elliott looked over his shoulder as the door to the town jail banged open. Ajay ran out to Elliott and Natalie, followed by Sheriff Gibraltar.

Ajay lightly punched Elliott's arm. "Never do that again,” she said.

Sheriff Gibraltar laughed and good-naturedly thumped Elliott on the back, strong enough to nearly knock Elliott to the ground. "Nice trick, Witt! You're just lucky we didn't start shooting at that vampire when we saw him hauling your corpse around!"

Elliott gave a weak chuckle. That _was_ lucky, since Elliott's invisibility didn't shield him from bullets or buckshot. He hadn't considered that Ajay and Gibraltar might open fire on them if they genuinely thought Crypto had killed Elliott.

"Vampire?" Natalie looked up at Elliott, rubbing at her head. "What vampire?" she said. She stopped, staring in confusion at the ring of lanterns surrounding the town jail. "Are those my lamps? What are they all doing outside?"

Elliott grinned at her, just happy she and everyone else were alive and back to normal. "It's a long story."

Standing up, he turned around, looking for Crypto. His wide smile suddenly fell off his face.

Crypto was kneeling on the ground, hunched over the Revenant's cloak. He was visibly trembling. Elliott could faintly hear him retching.

"Crypto?" Elliott ran to the vampire, kneeling down next to him. On the ground in front of Crypto was a large puddle of black swirled with red. Elliott’s blood floated on top of the black ichor like oil on water.

The vampire looked up at Elliott dolefully, his mouth smeared with Elliott's and the Revenant's blood. Crypto’s expression was pinched in pain, his face ash-grey. Even the light from his eyes was rapidly dwindling. "I can't..." he said softly.

Ice settled into the pit of Elliott's stomach. "Ajay!" he shouted, starting to panic. What had gone wrong? "Help! Vampire down!"

Ajay ran over to them and crouched down on the other side of Crypto, closely studying him and the pool of blood in front of him. "You couldn't keep down...whatever it was you drank from the Revenant?"

"I thought...maybe..." Crypto rasped, breathing heavily.

"' _Maybe_ '?" Elliott repeated incredulously. "You said it wouldn't be a problem!"

“I thought wrong,” Crypto ground out, squeezing his eyes closed.

Ajay sighed, shaking her head. “You foolish vampire. No wonder you get along with Elliott.”

"What’s going on?" said Elliott, worry gnawing at his stomach.

"Far as I can see, the Revenant's blood tainted everything that was in his stomach. He needs fresh blood now or he’ll die right here," said Ajay.

The words were barely out of her mouth before Elliott began to remove the scarf from his neck, tossing it aside.

To her credit, Ajay didn't bodily drag him away from Crypto and ask what the hell he was thinking offering his neck to a vampire. She stared at him with solemn eyes and said, "You sure?"

"Yes." Elliott wrapped one arm around Crypto, trying to turn him away from the puddle of the Revenant's blood. "I made him a promise and I'm gonna keep it."

Ajay still looked dubious but nodded, backing away from Elliott and Crypto. Soon, she and Gibraltar were shooing curious or stunned townsfolk away from Elliott and Crypto, giving them some privacy.

Elliott gently directed Crypto's head down to his neck, until the other man's mouth hovered directly over his thudding pulse. “Here,” Elliott said, forcing lightness into his voice. “You can buy me that drink afterwards.”

“No.” The vampire didn’t lower his mouth down to the skin, even though Elliott could feel his body shuddering with need. "Don't think...I'd be able to stop," Crypto whispered to him hoarsely.

Thank the gods Ajay hadn’t heard that or she’d never let him do this. Elliott stroked Crypto’s hair, eliciting a thin whine from the other man. "Hey, hey. It's all right,” he told the vampire. He gently pressed down on the back of Crypto’s head, allowing the vampire’s mouth to touch against his skin. “I trust you."

Crypto trembled against Elliott, making a noise that was halfway between a wheeze and a sob. His lips pressed an ice-cold kiss against Elliott's throat for the briefest moment before he bit down.

Crypto's fangs piercing the skin of his neck was nothing like before. A wave of all-consuming pleasure crashed inside his head all at once, radiating down the line of his spine until all of his body was tingling with it. With a low moan, Elliott let his head go limp. He fisted his hand in Crypto’s hair, guiding the vampire’s fangs deeper into his neck.

The first time, Crypto had been careful with Elliott, calmly in control despite his hunger. Now he gulped down Elliott’s blood recklessly, like it was the food of the gods (or top shelf bourbon) and he intended to gorge himself on every last drop of it.

His head buzzing with euphoria, Elliott found himself grinning widely. Even if this did kill him, it’d be one hell of a way to die.

Elliott was almost disappointed when Crypto began to slow down, obviously trying to restrain himself from taking too much of Elliott’s blood. With a frustrated grunt, Crypto slid his fangs out of Elliott’s neck. The sensation of Crypto’s sharp fangs sliding against his skin almost overwhelmed him, stars dancing on the edges of his vision, but he stubbornly clung to consciousness. Like before, Crypto ran his tongue across the wounds his fangs had made. Unlike before, the sensation of Crypto's tongue running over the two bite marks made Elliott shiver.

“Looks like you’ve had enough, vampire boy,” Elliott was vaguely aware of Ajay saying somewhere above him. It sounded like she was standing on the moon.

Elliott's head felt like it was wrapped in cotton and his limbs too heavy for him to move. He couldn’t quite lift his head up enough to get a good look at Crypto’s face, but he could see his glowing eyes, back to their normal brightness. The strange ashen cast to his skin was gone and he was back to his typical shade of pale.

“That's better,” said Elliott with an exhausted grin.

“You idiot,” said Crypto gently, brushing a wavy lock of Elliott’s hair from his eyes. There was a small, genuine smile on the vampire’s lips that softened the rest of his severe face.

“Excuse me?" Elliott protested weakly. "I must've done so-som-something right. You're not d-dy-dying anymore." The words were thick and clumsy in his mouth.

A corner of Crypto's lips twitched. “I'm already dead," he reminded Elliott.

"Dying again. Still, you should be th-t-thanking me.”

Crypto kissed his forehead. “Thank you, idiot.”

“As touching as this is, unless the vampire wants to go up in smoke, we need to get both of you indoors,” Ajay’s voice said.

Elliott let his head fall back and looked up at the sky. It was starting to lighten, with the first rays of the morning sun almost cresting over the horizon.

“Shit, it’s almost sunrise already? I didn’t know we were that close,” said Elliott, scrunching his eyes closed.

Crypto gave Elliott a sidelong glance. “Can you walk, Witt?”

“Uh. Not right now.” It was taking all his strength just to keep himself conscious and talking. He'd fall flat on his face if he tried to stand up. 

Crypto looked back at the sky and then turned back to Elliott. He bent down and scooped Elliott up like he weighed next to nothing, cradling his head against his chest.

“Whoa! He-hey, what are you doing?” Elliott said, his head spinning from the sudden movement. His cheek was pressed against a drying splotch of dark blood on the vampire's collar.

Ajay laughed loudly somewhere behind him. “Let’s get Elliott to my office and I’ll patch him up. I can take a look at you too, Mister Vampire.”

“Thank you,” said Crypto, letting Ajay lead them to her office.

* * *

To his dismay, Elliott was placed in one of the beds in Ajay’s office to rest. All the curtains in the room were closed and pinned shut, both to make it easier for Elliott to sleep and for the safety of Ajay’s only other patient.

Crypto was lying on the bed next to Elliott's. The vampire's eyes were closed in sleep and his finger laced over his stomach. He’d taken off his frock coat, necklace, vest and boots, leaving him in his silk shirt and trousers.

Ajay had tried to examine Crypto to make sure there were no lingering effects from drinking the Revenant’s blood, but she’d quickly given up after realizing most of her medical training was close to useless when presented with an undead patient. The best she could do was give Crypto a pitcher of warm water, soap and a towel so he could scrub off the blood from his face and clothes.

When Crypto was sleeping, he really did look like he was dead.

Elliott had managed to stay awake long enough for Ajay to mix together a foul-tasting concoction for him to drink (“to help replace the fluids your vampire friend slurped out of you”), as well as nibble at a sweet cinnamon roll she’d gotten at the town’s bakery for him to eat.

After Elliott had eaten, she cleaned and dressed the two bite wounds in his neck, wrapping a bandage around them. “I don’t think they’ll scar,” she said. “Anything else?”

Grimacing, Elliott looked away from her. He slowly rolled up the sleeve of his shirt. “Well. There is one more...”

Ajay stared down at the red bite marks on Elliott’s elbow with dismay. She grabbed his arm, looking closer at the wounds to confirm they matched the ones on his neck. “Elliott! What were you thinking, letting him feed from you twice in one night?” she hissed.

Elliott flinched. “He needed it! The Revenant’d been starving him.”

Ajay glared at him as she began to clean the skin around the wounds on his elbow with her cloth. “No more offering yourself up as a vampire's meal for at least a month, understand? Or there won’t be anything left of you.”

Elliott nodded, lying back against the pillow as Ajay cleaned and wrapped the puncture wounds in his arm in gauze. When she was finished, she handed him something. "Here, hold this."

It was a silver cross pendant. He stared at it a moment and then looked at Ajay with a frown, raising one eyebrow.

"Humor me," she said. "The vampire, he didn't try to turn you his thrall or anything? He didn't hypnotize you into wanting to give him your blood?"

"What? No!" said Elliott, offended on Crypto's behalf. The vampire was still asleep on the other bed. "He didn't do anything like that!"

"Easy. I believe you, I just wanted to be sure." She took the silver pendant back from Elliott. "I heard vampires are supposed to be able to hypnotize people into doing whatever they want, and your keenness to let him suck your blood had me worried."

"He was _sick,"_ Elliott frowned.

"He's a vampire." Ajay glanced over her shoulder at Crypto on the bed behind her. She patted Elliott's shoulder. "But if you say he's OK, then he's OK. Get some rest, Elliott."

As if he'd been waiting for her permission, Elliott drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The sun was starting to set when Elliott woke up again. Ajay was gone and Crypto was awake, sitting on the edge of his own bed, the light from his eyes visible in the darkened room.

“Hey there.” Elliott slid over to make room in the bed for Crypto. He patted at the empty spot on his bed’s blanket in invitation.

Crypto looked at him long enough that Elliott began to wonder if he’d refuse. The vampire silently stood and then slipped under the blanket. Crypto laid down on his back, resting his head on the bed's pillow next to Elliott's.

Elliott curled up next to the vampire. The day spent in Ajay’s warm office didn’t make Crypto’s body quite as cold as last night. "Where’s Ajay?” said Elliott. She wasn't at her desk.

“She’s visiting the people who were possessed by the Revenant’s shadows.” Crypto saw Elliott begin to open his mouth and added, “They were returned to normal after the Revenant died, but the experience of being a shadow wasn’t...pleasant.”

“Oh.”

“Doctor Che asked me to watch you while she was out.” One corner of Crypto’s mouth quirked up. “She also said that if I fed from you again while she was gone, she’d cut off my head herself.”

Elliott chuckled. “That sounds like Ajay.”

Crypto looked at him and sighed, lowering the collar of Elliott’s shirt to examine the bandages around his neck. A cool finger brushed over the cotton pad covering the wounds. “I’m sorry,” Crypto said. “For everything. That didn’t go as smoothly as I’d planned.”

Elliott shrugged. “We saved the town and the Revenant’s dead. I don’t think we did too bad, apart from the, y'know, brushes with death." He shifted underneath the blanket, sliding closer to Crypto to see his face better. “Everything the Revenant said about you and your sister was true?”

Crypto turned his head to stare up at the ceiling of the office. “Yes.”

Elliott looked at Crypto’s somber face, the light of his otherworldly eyes reflecting off the metal bedframe. “What was your sister like?” he said, curious.

“Mila?” A soft smile came to Crypto’s lips. “She was brave, headstrong. Intelligent. Very stubborn. We weren't related by blood, but we'd looked out for each other since we were very small.” His smile slowly faded, and he turned his head to gaze directly at Elliott with the full force of his strange eyes. “It’s only been two years since she died, but it feels like I'm losing her more each day. My memories are the only things I have left of her. I don’t want them to fade away completely."

“They won’t. Of course they won't,” assured Elliott.

Crypto glared at him, his expression suddenly bitter and raw. “I don’t need empty promises, Witt. I’ve heard them all before.”

"What? N-no, I'm n-not, I..." Elliott stammered, taken aback, and then let out a sigh. If Crypto was willing to bare his soul, it was only fair that he do the same. When he spoke again, he spoke slowly. “All three of my older brothers died fighting in the Wars." He cupped his hand against Crypto's cheek. “It's been almost ten years and I still think about them every single day. You’re not going to forget about Mila - you couldn’t.”

Crypto’s anger crumpled, the light from his eyes becoming oddly watery and rippling.

"C'mere." Elliott wrapped his arms around Crypto. The vampire buried his face against Elliott's chest.

"I didn't know," said Crypto, his voice muffled by Elliott's chest.

"I mean, I don't talk about it much," admitted Elliott. "It's a little depressing."

Crypto weakly chuckled, and then lifted his head as he heard the door open on the first floor.

"Ajay?" called Elliott. "That you?"

"Elliott! Good, you're awake," said Ajay as she climbed the stairs up to their room with a large, rolled-up poster in one hand. She did not seem overly surprised that her two patients were sharing a bed, more relieved that all of their clothes were still on. She lit an oil lamp near the bed, bathing the room in a golden glow. "Are you feeling better?"

Elliott nodded. He was, surprisingly. Sleep and the medicine she'd given him earlier had helped. He wasn't anywhere close to tip-top shape yet, but he felt less weak and sluggish than he had when Crypto had carried him in this morning.

"Good, good.” Ajay turned to Crypto and held out the poster to him. “Here, Crypto. I've got a present for you.”

Elliott eyed the rolled-up poster with confusion. "What kind of present is that?"

Taking the poster from Ajay, Crypto unrolled it as Elliott moved closer to look at it.

Ajay had stolen one of Anita's wanted posters. 'REWARD' was at the top of the poster in bold letters, with '$$$ 7,000.00 $$$' in even larger type underneath.

It was the photograph in the center of the poster that made Elliott's eyebrows rise.

" _Huh_."

Crypto's face was printed below the reward amount, except it wasn't the vampire sitting next to Elliott. This Crypto had large glasses perched on his nose and wore a plain white shirt. There was none of the gold plates covering his jaw or neck. He looked strangely normal. Human. The eyes behind the lenses of his glasses were dark, not pale and glowing. The photograph had been taken before he'd been turned.

Elliott read the lines of text beneath the photograph out loud. "'Taejoon Park - wanted dead or alive for the murder of Mila Alexander, his sister. Immediately contact nearest Marshal's Office.'"

"Thought you looked familiar. You're in some trouble, yeah?" said Ajay, leaning back against her desk. "That’s a pretty reward the Marshals have out for you, considering you only have one murder to your name."

Crypto rolled the poster back up, his face impassive.

"You faked your own death?" said Elliott.

"There was nothing 'fake' about it," muttered Crypto, staring down at the blanket.

Elliott pointedly rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean. You obviously went through a lot of trouble to try and make people think Taejoon the human and Crypto the vampire were different people.”

Crypto sighed and leaned back against the bedframe. "I'd hoped that if the Council of Night thought Taejoon Park had disappeared, they'd lower their guard. It doesn't appear that they were fooled."

"What's the Council of Night?" said Elliott. "The Revenant mentioned it too."

"They're a ring of very old, very powerful vampires." His hand tightened around the poster. "After they murdered Mila and pinned her death on me, I had to disappear, to become something else, to keep the Council and their Marshals from catching me. Their arms reach everywhere - government, law enforcement, newspapers. No place is safe from them."

"Well, I wouldn’t say 'no place'," Ajay said offhandedly.

Crypto looked at her, clearly puzzled.

Elliott figured out what she meant before Crypto did, his face lighting up. "Kings Canyon is safe. Even if they knew who you really are, Anita and Makoa wouldn’t turn you in to the Marshals, not after what you did." He smiled. “You could stay here!”

Crypto stared at Elliott, taken aback. "I don--" He stopped, and then said, "I can't go out in the sunlight or I'd burn up. Where would I live?"

"I have a cellar under my saloon," offered Elliott. "No windows. Nice and cool during the day. Right now it's where I store some of the drinks but I wouldn't mind turning it into a room for you if you asked me."

Not expecting such a quick response, Crypto hesitated before shaking his head. "No. That is a...very kind offer, but I can't stay in Kings Canyon," he said. "Not while the Council is still out there, looking for me. It would put everyone here in danger."

Ajay rolled her eyes. "Kings Canyon’s a town full of misfits and miscreants who have you and Elliott to thank for saving their asses. You couldn’t ask for a better place to hide out from the Marshals and plot your revenge."

"Yeah, and I bet some of the people here would be willing to help. I mean, you've seen how Natalie's a genius with electricity," said Elliott.

"Anita could show you how to make smoke bombs," added Ajay.

Elliott laughed. "Fuck, you wouldn't even be the first person here to have faked their death!"

Crypto shook his head again, but Elliott could see the vampire's resolve to leave Kings Canyon was slowly weakening, bit by bit.

Time to deliver the killing blow.

Elliott looked Crypto right in the eyes, smiled his most charming, earnest smile and placed a hand on top of Crypto's. "You don't have to do this by yourself, Taejoon," Elliott said with perfect sincerity. "Whatever you need, I'll do my best to help you. I promise."

Crypto was silent, his face unreadable, but he didn't move to take his hand away from Elliott's. He sighed, his shoulder slumping in defeat. "Perhaps it would be all right if I stay here. For a few days. At least long enough to burn that coffin," he murmured. 

Elliott beamed at the vampire, and only grinned wider when Crypto slowly returned it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost done! All that's left is the epilogue.


	3. Two Months Later

The bottle racks had been removed from the Paradise's Saloon's small underground cellar. A bed had been placed in one corner, a beaten-up writing desk with a chair in the other. Ajay had given him a small wooden chest that sat at the foot of his bed. Crypto had hung a large board over the desk, cutting out clippings from newspapers to try and track the movements of people who were known associates of the Council of Night while plotting out his next move. The windowless cellar wasn't very large but it was a space to call his own, something he hadn't had since he'd had to leave Suotamo behind.

A pang of guilt went through him when he thought about his former home. Mystik's most recent letter had arrived a few days ago. He'd have to send her a response soon, to make up for the worry he'd put her through when the Revenant had captured him. He hadn't been able to send out his usual letters to her when he'd been trapped inside an enchanted coffin.

Crypto paused, listening to the sounds of Elliott moving around above him to open the saloon. Crypto could hear Elliott's heartbeat even when Elliott was upstairs. After Crypto had agreed to stay in the saloon's cellar, he'd worried that having to listen to a human's heart all the time would annoy him, but he quickly discovered that Elliot's heartbeat wasn't annoying at all. It was low, steady and soothing - not a nuisance but a gentle reminder that Elliott was there. Elliott's heart was often the first thing Crypto was aware of when he woke up and the last thing he heard before falling asleep, his head resting against Elliott's. Even when there were other people in the saloon, he could always tell where Elliott was. Right now, there were three other people upstairs in the Paradise Saloon with Elliott.

Elliott knocked on the door at the top of the stairs, bringing him out of his thoughts. Crypto glanced at the clock on his desk. The sun would have set by now. "Come in," he called, pinning a new photograph to the board.

Elliott came down the wooden stairs, whistling to himself. He kissed Crypto on the cheek. “Hey there, handsome. How's the downfall of the Council of Night coming along?"

Crypto grunted, pinning another article onto the board. "It's coming. Just not as quickly as I'd like."

"How much longer, do you think?" said Elliott, looking at the assortment of newspaper clippings, posters, photographs, maps and handwritten notes Crypto had pinned to the board. Most of the board was covered. "Or should I get you another board?"

Crypto glanced at the board, and then at the map pinned down in a corner. "Maybe another week or two for me to gather everything I need. They appear to be headed for World's Edge."

"Great."

Crypto mumbled something under his breath in Korean.

Elliott lightly elbowed him lightly in the side.

Crypto sighed. "I wish you would reconsider," he repeated in English, staring at his own wanted poster mounted on the board. The last thing he wanted was to put a matching poster of Elliott next to it. The Council of Night could ruin Elliott's life as easily as they'd ruined his, take away anyone and anything Elliott cared about.

Elliott hummed. "Depends. Would you change your mind about going after the Council of Night?"

Crypto shook his head. “You know I can’t," he said softly. "Not when I'm so close." He had dreamed of the day when he'd be able to exact revenge against the Council for Mila's death. Now that it was finally taking shape, stopping was impossible. He had to see this through to the end, no matter what, for her.

"Then no, sorry. I'm coming with you."

"World's Edge is a very dangerous place, Witt," Crypto muttered. It had been a large mining town that had been abruptly abandoned for vague and ill-defined reasons several years ago, leaving the town to wither away into a ghost town. He still needed to find out why the Council was headed out there, and why _now_ instead of back when the mine had shut down. If the Council was interested in the town of World's Edge, it could only be for sinister reasons.

Elliott laughed, patting Crypto on the back. "It's a good thing you're a revenge-obsessed vampire and I'm a handsome and charming master illusionist. If the two of us could survive the Revenant, those Council of Night vampires'll be a piece of cake."

"You're not as charming as you think you are," said Crypto with an irritated huff.

"I don't know about that. Seemed to work on you pretty well," Elliott pointed out with an infuriating smirk.

Crypto gave a frustrated sigh but didn't bother denying it. The fact that Crypto was still in Kings Canyon months after the Revenant's death, living underneath the saloon, was proof enough that Elliott was right. The vampire shook his head. "Why do you even want to come with me to kill the Council?" he said.

"First, because I'm not interested in being the pining lover who tearily watches the dashing hero ride away into the sunset." Elliot turned to Crypto with a large grin. "And second, did I ever tell you what I first did when I left my mother's farm?"

Crypto looked at him in confusion. "No, but what does that have t--?"

Elliott held up a hand. "I have a point, I swear. See, I went to Solace City because I wanted to use my illusions to become a stage magician, famous enough that I'd rake in enough money to help save the farm. I even had a stage name picked out and ready to go - 'Mirage'.” He chuckled to himself. “I was going to take that city by _storm_."

"What happened?" Crypto said.

"I got booked to play maybe...seven or eight shows a year in a tiny rinky-dink theater when I lived in Solace. At most, I had about fifteen people in the audience and one of them had usually snuck in to heckle me. I just couldn't get anyone interested in my illusions, no matter how good they were."

Crypto said nothing, waiting for Elliott to continue.

"My mother'd always told me I was capable of amazing feats with my magic. When I was younger, I thought that meant I'd become a famous illusionist, and she really supported me moving out to Solace City to pursue that. But looking back, I think she'd hoped I'd use my magic for something else."

"What?"

Elliott smiled. "To protect the people I love," he said, brushing Crypto's grey lock of hair behind his ear.

Crypto rested his head against Elliott's shoulder, listening to the comforting beat of the other man's pulse for a moment, breathing in the other man. 

Elliott gave a sly chuckle. "Although I still wouldn't say no to some fame and fortune if it came my way," he added.

Crypto rolled his eyes good-naturedly, unseen by the other man.

The past few weeks, Crypto had felt... _strange_. Although his own heart was frozen inside his chest, never to beat again, for the first time since he'd died, it felt almost warm. He'd assumed that it had to do with a more steady diet of fresh blood thanks to no longer having to hide outside of towns and hunt whatever animals he came across. But even after he'd first turned, when he'd needed the most blood, he'd never felt like this. Then, he'd been a ghost shivering in the hidden room of Mystik's orphanage, always hungry and so cold, struggling to sate a thirst that could never be satisfied.

This was different. The warmth filled him, no matter how long ago he'd fed. He hadn't felt like this since before he'd turned.

Then the answer smiled at him again and Crypto wondered how he could've been so foolish.

Crypto didn't have to run anymore. There were several people in Kings Canyon besides Elliott who knew who he really was and didn't care, who were still helping him with his attack on the Council. And, of course, there was Elliott himself.

Elliott grinned down at him. "Come on, Anita said she'd have some more smoke bombs ready for us tonight." He took Crypto's hand and lead him to the wooden stairs. “The gang’s all here, waiting for you!”

"But I'm not finished yet..." Crypto laughed, knowing he'd get no more work done tonight. He looked back at the board. His eyes widened when he saw the pale silhouette of a woman standing in front of it, wispy and indistinct except for its long red hair.

Crypto froze on the stairs. "Mila?" he breathed.

The vampire only caught a hint of his sister's familiar smile before the ghost disappeared.

Elliott was looking at Crypto with concern. He hadn't seen the ghost's brief appearance. "Hey, you all right?"

It took a moment for the vampire to find his voice again. "I'm..." He nodded his head with a small smile. Crypto walked towards Elliott, relishing the warmth of the other man's hand. "I'm better than I've been in a long time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end!
> 
> There are two things that I want to mention from earlier drafts of the epilogue that didn't make it in to this:
> 
> \- Mystik was one of the few people who saw Mirage's stage show; she thought he was the best illusionist she'd ever seen.  
> \- Vampire Crypto likes to take naps wrapped in Mirage's scarf when he's in bat mode.
> 
> Thank you for reading! c:


End file.
